Colby Rasmus can be an incredibly frustrating player to watch, if only because the Blue Jays’ power-hitting centre fielder can also be among the most exciting.

The 27-year-old Alabama native will go through dismal stretches when, after he flails at another breaking ball well outside the strike zone, you wonder if he might be swinging with his eyes closed.

Then he’ll go on a stretch — like he is now — when you marvel at his bat speed, dead-pull power and elegant swing. His pendulous swings in production only serve to make his slumps all the more enraging.

Rasmus has hit five home runs in his last eight games. Since the calendar turned to May, he has been among the most dangerous hitters in the majors, posting a 1.329 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. His nine homers are the most by a centre fielder and he is tied with Jose Bautista for the team lead.

He also has the fourth-highest strikeout rate in the majors, whiffing nearly a third of the times he steps to the plate, while his 15.5 per cent swing-and-miss rate is among the 10 highest marks in the league.

His temperamental production has been a facet of Rasmus’s game since he arrived in Toronto. In 2012, his first full season with the Jays, Rasmus’s first-half OPS was more than 300 points higher than in the second half. He was less streaky last season as he extended his peaks and limited his valleys, an improvement Rasmus credits to former hitting coach, Chad Mottola.

“He was able to help me with some of the bad habits and — whatever you want to call it, demons? — that I had from my past experience of trying so hard and wanting to do so much that I was always working against myself. So now I just try to go out there and relax and play.”

“With power comes strikeouts and normally those are streaky-type guys,” said Jays’ GM Alex Anthopoulos, comparing Rasmus to other boom-or-bust sluggers like Justin and B.J. Upton in Atlanta and Mark Reynolds in Milwaukee. “He’s got an upper-cut swing that’s going to lend itself to be streaky.”

Set to become a free agent after this season, the Jays have a tough decision to make regarding Rasmus’s future. Are they willing to live and die with his hit-and-miss game for the long term? Or will they let him excite and frustrate another franchise? One thing’s for sure: as a centre fielder with pop, Rasmus will get paid, likely in the neighbourhood of five-to-seven years at $15 million-$18 million per.

If the Jays fall out of contention before the July 31st trade deadline, he could become an attractive trade chip.

“I don’t know, it’s just the game — and my head,” Rasmus said, when asked to explain why he’s such a hot-and-cold hitter. “The game’s hard.”

What he knows for sure is that he plays better when he’s relaxed. But it’s hard to force that feeling when it’s not there. Like a lot of hitters, Rasmus struggles when he loses his sense of the strike zone and chases pitches. When he struggles, he tries harder, which only compounds the problem. When he’s hitting, the game comes easy, he said.

“I feel like I’m trying less now than when I was doing bad,” he said. “That may seem crazy to say, but that’s how I feel. Now when I go up there, I’m like, ‘Whatever, no big deal.’ But whenever I was doing bad I was like” — here, Rasmus tenses the muscles in his face in mock intensity — “ ‘I’m going to get this hit!’ And then: crickets. It’s just baseball, man. It’s a crazy game.”

Rasmus admits — in hilariously self-effacing fashion — that sometimes he makes himself crazy getting pumped up before the game.

“When you finally get up to the plate it’s like” — again, Rasmus tenses up, doing what seems like his impression of a pro wrestler — “ ‘I’ve been waitin’ for this all day! My last at-bat was last night but I’m ready to get up there and hit right now!’ Then, instead of being relaxed and seeing the ball, you’re just like, ‘I’m going to do it right here! I’m going to help our team! I’m going to do this!’ And you take a fat dump in your pants. So to speak,” he says, laughing. “But that’s just baseball, man. I don’t know. It’s a crazy game.”

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